It’s a good thing that California isn’t paying former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder by the word.

During a Capitol scrum with reporters on Tuesday, sandwiched between meetings with Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislators, Holder had little to say about his new role as architect of a legal strategy to push back against the Trump White House.

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“I’m here just to assist these gentlemen and the people who they serve with in trying to protect the interests of the people of California,” Holder said during a short hallway stop along with Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Paramount, and Senate President pro Tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles.

Those Democratic leaders have made no secret of their desire to use Holder’s Washington, D.C. credentials and connections to develop a legal blueprint for countering any punitive actions against California by the new administration.

Holder is a “rainmaker” with the law firm of Covington and Burling. He and a cluster of lawyers met privately on Tuesday with Democratic caucuses in the Senate and Assembly, followed by a huddle in the governor’s office.

Lawmakers declined to offer any details of the talks, repeating their previous message of working to protect California’s interests on key issues of conflict, including immigration.

The contract between the Legislature and Holder’s law firm is not especially lucrative for now, with an initial time frame of three months, capped at $25,000 per month. But Holder’s best friend, in regard to an expansion of those services, is turning out to be President Trump.

Last weekend, Trump told Fox News that California was “out of control” and said he could use withdrawal of federal funding to punish the state for its stance on the sanctuary city issue related to protecting immigrant rights.

That threat set off a predictable round of outrage and will serve to cement the hard line already on display among the Capitol’s Democratic leaders. They will now argue, in that context, that hiring Holder was a worthwhile investment to protect the state’s interests, given the billions of federal dollars that flow to California in the form of budgetary payments for everything from health care to education.

Lawmakers have already introduced legislation to provide legal assistance to immigrants facing deportation and to prohibit local law enforcement from assisting federal immigration agents. They’re expanding on that this week with more legislation that would provide in-state tuition for immigrants and grants for counties that are a magnet for refugee populations, such as Sacramento.

That continued legislative focus, along with the president’s tendency to taunt, adds up to a lot of potential legal work for Eric Holder in the months to come.

Author Kevin Riggs is an Emmy-winning former political reporter for KCRA-TV. He is now the station’s political analyst and is senior vice president at Randle Communications.